Theory, practice and being in touch

The first question asked of the candidates at the League of Woman Voters forum was, "Falmouth’s Action Plan is a comprehensive guide designed to enable the town to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately save money by reducing overall energy consumption. What steps do you think the Board of Selectmen should take toward implementing Falmouth’s Climate Action Plan over the next three years?"

A part of the Climate Action Plan suggests replacing some town cars, like sedans, with hybrids. One of the other candidates endorsed this idea in his answer. I don't.

Not long ago, I'd heard something about hybrids and changing mileage ratings. The chart here details this. Apparently, few hybrids were getting the advertised mileage because what was advertised was not based on real world conditions, so the EPA has revised those figures - down.

My Saturn SL2, a compact car like a Honda Civic, gets about 30mpg around town and 36mpg on the highway. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that - given the additional expense of $1500 to $4500 - hybrids are not a good value for the taxpayer.

The idea of having the town buying hybrids is, in my mind, another case of theory versus practice, i.e., what sounds good in theory doesn't always work in practice.

For the record, my answer was that this - the Climate Action Plan - isn't one of the issues the people of Falmouth are concerned about. In fact, until the LWV asked this question, no one had mentioned this, which just goes to show that someone is out of touch with the people.

We CAN do better.